1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coordinates input apparatus for operating such as a cursor or a window on a screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally a mouse or a track ball is used for the pointing device connected to a computer. Moreover, recently pointing devices such as pads, touch pads or track pads have also come to be used. The pad is used either in an integral form such as with a portable type computer, or in an externally attached form such as with a desk top type computer. Since it is not necessary to move the pad, as with a mouse, it has the feature that it can be operated even in a limited space such as on a desk-top without obstruction.
In moving a cursor (also referred to as a pointer) on a screen using such a pad, the finger may simply be placed on and slid over the small (a few square centimeters) operating surface on the pad. The pad is provided with left and right buttons as with mouse type devices, and in addition various operations the same as for left button clicking, such as selecting and moving an object displayed on the screen can be realized by lightly tapping the operating surface with the finger. This operation is in particular referred to as "tap" or "tapping." By means of this tapping operation, then as well as the above-mentioned clicking operation, operations such as left button double clicking where the left button is clicked two times in succession (used for example in starting an application), and drag (where the cursor is aligned with the screen object and the object moved to a desired location while pressing the left button) can be carried out with one finger.
By operating the operating surface of the pad with the finger above manner, the pad achieves the same function as the cursor moving and left button click operations using the mouse. However, with the conventional pad, the same function as the mouse right button click operation cannot be achieved by an operation on the operating surface. Hence it is necessary to click a right button provided on the pad with the finger, as with a mouse. To carry out the right button click operation, the following operations are required. First, in the case where the user wishes to operate the pad continuously using only one finger, the finger is moved from the operating surface to the right button location, and the right button then pressed with the finger to carry out the click operation. Moreover, in the case where the user operates the pad with two fingers, the operating surface is operated with one finger, while the other finger is placed at the right button location to carry out the click operation. Therefore, to carry out the right button click operation, it is necessary to either operate the pad with two fingers, or to move one finger back and forth between the operating surface and the right button. Hence, the advantages of the present pad in that it can be operated with only a minimal number of one finger operations is lessened.
Moreover, with the latest computers wherein operation of a window (that is to say a plurality of separate screens on the display unit) is a prerequisite, user operations such as adjusting the size of the window to suit the work conditions, scrolling the contents displayed in the window up and down or sideways within the window (the method of successively displaying the screen contents as a scroll), or closing an unnecessary window, are frequently carried out.
Here adjustment of the window size is carried out for example by moving the cursor while clicking on the right hand lower corner of the window. Moreover, to scroll in the window, it is necessary to move the cursor to a so called scroll bar (or slide bar ) provided at the right edge or bottom edge of the window, and then click the scroll bar a required number of times. Furthermore, closing the window is carried out by moving the cursor to a small box, referred to as a close box, provided for example on the upper right corner of the window, and clicking on this box.
In carrying out the various window operations in this way, various combinations of cursor movement and the button clicking are required. Hence if the right button finger clicking operation is included, then the above-mentioned advantages of the pad are not fully realized. Moreover, positioning the cursor on the screen using the pad is not considered easy, even for a user skilled in pad operation, and hence considering a normal user these operations are quite complicated, thus putting a load on the user.